Developers of operating systems and software applications require that users of these systems have a license to use the system. The license indicates that the user has paid for the right to use the software. Business enterprises that license software for use in enterprise systems usually enter into a concurrent access license with the software developer. A concurrent users license allows a limited number of unique users to use the software. Such licenses, however, can be virtually impossible to enforce.
Some network software systems are configured to allow only a certain number of users to access the software at the same time. For example, an operating system may be configured to allow only ten users to access the operating system at any given time. However, limiting access to ten users at the same time does not necessarily limit access to the operating system to ten unique users. Typical use of a system will see many users logging on and off a system for various periods throughout a day. One user may log onto the system for ten minutes and log off. Another user may log on for an hour before logging off. Therefore, it is possible that many more than ten users may access a system even though no more than ten users are logged onto the system at any given time.
Furthermore, software developers sometimes develop smaller versions of large software packages. These smaller versions—which are less expensive than the larger versions—are targeted for small businesses that do not need the capabilities of the larger version or that may not be able to afford the larger systems. If the software developer cannot limit the number of unique users that access the system, then a larger enterprise may use a version that was designed for a smaller enterprise and avoid using a more costly software package. Such misuse by an enterprise harms the software developer.